Sharing skills and experiences strengthen Comms Teams
CVTL Communication Team on a study visit with PMI, IFRC and ICRC
While Timor-Leste is a small country, we have 13 branches across the country, which cover a large variety of activities to help the vulnerable. CVTL’s Communications team is small, and in some areas of communications, skills are lacking. With this, two of CVTL’s Communication team had an opportunity to visit PMI IFRC, ICRC offices in Indonesia, to conduct study visit training for Communication Manager and Multimedia Officer. The objective of this visit was to strengthen the Communication Team activities, plans and strategies for CVTL; increase the knowledge, skills and capacity of the Communication Team; and exchange information. We believe that this visit will help promote our activities and increase the visibility and of CVTL.
The study visit to Indonesia, was from 28 November – 8 December 2023, with our friends from the communication teams of IFRC, ICRC, Indonesian Red Cross (PMI Jakarta Headquarters, PMI Provincial DKI Jakarta, PMI Bandung and PMI Provincial Bali).
“This was such a fantastic opportunity for us to be able to meet so many communications people. We went there to learn, but in the end, it turned out that we learnt from each other. We all had different skills, ideas, and knowledge that we were all eager to share and learn,” said Januário Freitas Pinto, CVTL’s Communication Manager.
Our agenda for the study visit included: Communication and Dissemination; Communication Policy and Strategy; how to write good stories and captions; learn more about photography and video; editing videos, how to control CVTL online Platform (Security Account); how to design good flyers, brochures and banners.
We all agreed that these study visits are extremely valuable things, and such an initiative needs to be continued and should be done with other National Societies. CVTL received some great feedback on a number issues. We were told that CVTL’s profile had increased in the past few years and they saw that Comms CVTL right now was strong. They said that we have an active Social Media profile with good stories, captions and editing. Our relatively recent change to have all our Facebook posts in both English and Tetun was a great idea and has made them about the Language of Publication for Target Audiences. They liked our new CVTL Website and were impressed with our CVTL Photobook. We discussed the progress of our Dissemination session – which they found interesting with a new approach.
From this study visit we took a number of lessons and learnings that we can apply to CVTL Communications. We learnt and practiced:
- OBS Apps which we can use for livestreaming and podcasts at CVTL
- How to create Online Platform or Media Social according to the area coverage
- Using Red Cross Volunteers with communication skills to support to Comms Team
- Trend Content Creator (Animation)
- The need to build strong Comms team in our Branches
- Specific Laptops for design and editing
- Specific phone for Online Platform
- Strong Passwords for Online platform, and active two authenticator
- Centang Biru (Badge sign)
- Archive Pictures on Drive or Cloud
Mr. Pinto said, “I want to express my sincere thanks for the fantastic peer-to-peer learning experience we shared during the recent study visit. It provided a unique opportunity for us to not only explore various aspects of effective, but also to put theory into practice. Everyone’s willingness to engage, share ideas, and provide constructive feedback created a supportive environment that made the learning process both enjoyable and impactful.
CVTL’s Secretary General, Luis Pedro Pinto, said how delighted he was at the cooperation between CVTL and PMI. He said he was thankful at the openness, enthusiasm, and dedication to our shared learning goals. He hoped that in the future these collaborative learning experiences would continue to build on the skills developed together.
A special thanks to Australian Red Cross (ARC) for supporting this important initiative, and to the technical support from the PMI, IFRC and ICRC. #End
